South Florida

South Florida Group Creates Challenge to Get Metal Detectors Purchased, Donated to Schools

What to Know

  • The “Alumni Challenge” was created by Teddy and Russell Berman, founders of the Berman Law Firm and graduates of J.P. Taravella High School.
  • The group bought one for their alma mater and has asked the Broward County School Board to accept it – while encouraging others to donate.

A group of South Florida businessmen and women are issuing a challenge for others who have become successful to give back to their high school alma maters – by buying and donating metal detectors to the schools in the wake of February’s mass shooting in Parkland.

The “Alumni Challenge” was created by Teddy and Russell Berman, founders of the Berman Law Firm and graduates of J.P. Taravella High School in Coral Springs. The group bought one for their alma mater and has asked the Broward County School Board to accept it – while encouraging others to do the same by purchasing a walk through detector or wands that can be used.

“It will assure me that when he walks through that door that I’m going to get him coming home at the end of the day," said Lisa Valko, the mother of a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 people were killed.

Valko donated along with Evan Golden, a 1999 graduate of the school.

“We’re not asking to make schools prisons," Golden said to NBC station WPTV. "We’re just asking to make them a little safer. At the end of the day, it’s always going to come down to money unfortunately. Do we have the funding? Does the money need to go there? Where does it go?"

"What we’re trying to do with the Alumni Challenge is bridge that gap and eliminate that excuse," Golden added.

Alumni are encouraged to donate to schools across the country.

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